Girls trip to Kyoto and Osaka

As you can see from the title of this posting a few friends and I left our poor husbands at home with the kids (in Orlando's case with the PlayStation 3) and went off to Kyoto (the historical center of Japan) for a short trip. This was the second time I went to Kyoto (refer to the posts in August of 2006) and I was amazed at all the new places and little corners of the town that we discovered in only one day. My friends and had only one plan - no plan, we would just end up where ever our sense of direction (or lack of) would take us. If there was a side street that looked interesting we would take it and if there was something interesting going on we would just check it out, as simple as that. This strategy turned out to be the absolute best!!! Here are the girls and I in the Shirakara canal which we found by absolute accident.
There where a series of small shrines (Shinto religion) all over Kyoto. Here is one of them:
We wondered around the Gion district which still has many old-style Japanese houses called ochaya, which roughly translated means "teahouses." These are traditional establishments where the geisha have entertained their very exclusive customers (not me) for a long time. Sadly, I have to report that I failed in my second attempt to find a real geisha, but I'm not giving up yet.

There was allot of activity along the Kamogawa river walk. People of all shapes and sizes where walking and hanging out so we spend some time there just people watching and taking in the scenery.

We where very serious about capturing every moment as you can see:
Everyone had huge high tech cameras, all I had was my trusty little Canon:
This proves once again that the size is not the most important thing. I managed to post all the pictures I took in Kytot with my tiny camera, go to the following page to check them out:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8677&l=a4f23&id=608576026

We had a chance to visit the Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is about twenty-minutes to the south of Kyoto. Dedicated to Inari, the Japanese fox goddess, Fushimi-Inari-taisha is the head shrine (taisha) for 40,000 Inari shrines across Japan. Stretching 230 meters up the hill behind it are hundreds of bright red torii gates. (reference: http://www.wikitravel.org/)We walked through the torii gates up a one of the hillsides and almost got bitten alive by mosquitoes!!! Note to self: don't go a shrine in the middle of the forest late in the afternoon. This shrine was really beautiful and different from the ones I had previously visited I definitely recommend it. Here are more pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8679&l=affc0&id=608576026

The next day we went to Osaka (the second largest city in Japan) and explored the downtown area for the afternoon. There was literally endless streets of shops and restaurant all over the place. My senses where on overload the whole time we where there, as you can see:

To see more pictures of Osaka go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8798&l=928bf&id=608576026

Kyoto - Second Day

- Nijo Castle
o http://www.city.kyoto.jp/bunshi/nijojo -> English pamphlet is in the bottom of the page.
o Nijo Castle was completed in 1626 and was home to the Shogun (military an political leader of Japan). It is one of the few buildings that where in their original state. A few of the other temples have been rebuild through out time due to fires or the effects of war. One very interesting aspect of the castle was that when you walked through the hallway the floor would squeak in order to alarm the Shogun of any intruders. Here we are in the Nijo Castle garden.

- Kinkakuji Temple (Golden Pavilion)
o http://kaiwai.city.kyoto.jp/sightdb/sight-raku/view_sight.php?InforKindCode=1&ManageCode=1000243
o The golden pavilion was the retirement home of one of Japan's Shoguns. It was truly radiant since their where no clouds in sight and the gold leaves that cover the building where shining brightly. Here we are in front of the temple. - Kyoto Imperial Palace

o Here is a picture of the coronation hall used for the official ceremony. We learned during the tour that the current Emperor is a direct descendent of the first Emperor, so there has only been one imperial family throughout the history of Japan.

- Heian Shrine
o http://www.heianjingu.or.jp/index_e.html

o Here we are in front of the shrine. There was a huge garden in the back of the building which was also very beautiful.

- Sanjusangendo
o http://www.taleofgenji.org/sanjusangendo.html
o This temple is famous for its 1001 statues of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Each statue has different objects in their hands in order to protect the people from different evils. Once again you can't take any pictures inside but I found this one on the internet. You could seriously spend hours in there just trying to figure out the small details that make the statues different.

- Kiyomizu Temple
o http://www.farstrider.net/Japan/Kyoto/Kiyomizudera.htm
o This was the most crowded temple of the whole trip. Later we found out that since we are in Obon week if you visit the temple once it's equivalent to visiting it 1000 times!!! The temple was on top of a very steep hill full of little souvenir shops. Here is Orlando in front of the temple.

This is me and my color coordinated Buddha friends.

One of the interesting things about this tour is that there where people from all over the world visiting Japan. It was the first time in a month where I finally heard a lot of Spanish being spoken. We meet some people from Argentina and a lot of people from Spain who where all very nice to us and helped us take some pictures. I guess Japan is a mystery to us all.

Kyoto

This week Japan celebrates Obon and as a result Orlando has the whole week off. We decided to go to Kyoto in the Kinki region (seriously thatÂ’s what itÂ’s called) of the country. Kyoto was JapanÂ’s capital from 794 to 1868 (http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/historical/1200.html) and as a result itÂ’s filled with temples (Buddhist religion) and shrines (Shinto religion) of great historical importance. Orlando and I covered a lot of ground in 3 days but Kyoto is so big that it would truly take more than a week to see all the attractions in detail. I decided to separate our trip according to what we did that day. I will include some details of the places we visited and some links to more information if you want to go into detail, which may be of interest if you are planning to visit us. ;-) Most of the temples and shrines did not allow photographs to be taken inside the building. As a result most of the pictures we have are of us in the main gate or on the gardens in the back (there is always a garden) of the structures, yet another reason why to come and visit.

First Day

1. Higashi Honganji Temple
o http://www.bombu.org/HigashiJapan.html
o This is the first temple we visited manly because it was the closest to the train station. You could literary walk around Kyoto and suddenly bump into some type of historical attraction. This is Orlando in the red hat in the "very small" front gate.

Here I am in the fountain in front of the temple. All Buddhistdist temples had a water fountain at the entrance in order for people to drink and purify their souls before entering.

2. Nara - This was the first capital of Japan. It's about 1 hour bus ride from Kyoto.
A. Todaji Temple
o http://www.jgc.co.jp/waza/a1_nara/index.htm
o Here we got to see the Virocana Buddha. It is one of the biggest Buddha statues in the world (the biggest one is in China - I asked the tour guide). The statues is almost 50 feet high and it's head is almost 20 feetlengthnght!!!

Here I am in the front of the huge temple. Tosincerecire I never thought I would be in a picture like this, but that's life you never know where your going to end up!!!

B. Nara Park
o http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4103.html
o This park was just in front of the Tadai-Ji Temple.
It had lots of free roaming deer all over (not like I have already seen enough deer in Michigan). There was this little kid playing with a plastic samurai sword. Cute right??

Not really once he started hitting the poor dear with his sword. Now the bad part this that it was happening right in the middle of me trying to take these pictures. Suddenly the dear started running toward me without any warning and almost ran me over. My quick reflexes saved me from the run away deer. After the drama of taking these pictures I thought it was only right for me to share them with all of you.

C. Kasuga Shrine
o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasuga_Shrine
o Here is a picture of the shrine's entrance (remember that there are now pictures allowed inside).

One interesting that happened to us there was that one of the Shinto priests c(on the left side of the picture with the big puffy thing in his hand) ame out of his house and blessed a new car in order to protect it from evil.

At the end of the day we where dying of exhaustion specially since it's about 97 F and 100% humidity every day here in Japan.